Fifth Cycle: Transition
by Dark Puck
Summary: The fourth Cycle is over and the fifth has begun. The story told from the eyes of two humans working for the Merovingian for different reasons. Sequel to Fourth Cycle.


fifth cycle: transition

dark puck

**Transition**

**One**

**Deal**

Red couldn't recall ever running full-speed in the real world.  And yet here he was, running as fast as his legs could carry him, the very recently-unplugged Kevin slung over his shoulder.  Red couldn't believe what he'd seen and heard in the past hour.

The One had sold Zion out.

And now Red had seen Sentinels destroy the _Echo_, killing Cyclone, who hadn't been able to get out; seen them literally tear Circe and Giza apart; seen them kill Sasha with one blow through her chest.  They had undoubtedly ripped through the rest of the Fleet as easily as they'd taken the _Echo, _though he thought with some pride that the _Zodiac_ had more than likely given as good as she got.

Tears were openly running down his face as he fled, trying to find an alcove where he could shove Kevin and defend the child.  A Sentinel was closing in on him; he turned and raised his EMP gun, letting loose a blast at it.  The recoil nearly made him lose his balance, but he used a trick he'd learned in the Matrix to turn his stumble into an accelerator to propel himself forward, gaining precious inches in his flight.

At last he found a hiding place that the Sentinels might overlook, especially if he made a big enough target out of himself.  With bare seconds to spare, he nestled Kevin into the alcove and warned him not to make a sound before rising and turning to meet his fate.

Promptly forgetting Kevin's age, he raised his gun and yelled at the top of his lungs, "_Come get me, you **bastards**_!"  The Sentinels obeyed.  Red opened fire, readying himself for death, when something utterly unexpected happened.

Two other Sentinels blasted in out of nowhere, attacking their compatriots without mercy.  Red watched with widened green eyes and an open mouth as the two newcomers tore the attacking Sentinels apart then turned to him.  He snapped his mouth shut and took a quick step back, bringing the EMP gun up to bear on them.

None of the odd trio moved for a long moment, then one of the Sentinels moved to the ground and slunk forward, oddly like a cat, and extended one of its claws.  It held a headset in it.  With narrowed eyes, he accepted the "gift", then the Sentinel – he decided irrationally to call it 'Kitty' – and its companion took off to form a sort of defensive circle around Red's general location.

He nearly dropped the headset when it rang, then stared at it for a moment as if he was unsure of its function.  At last, he located the 'talk' switch and flipped it after settling the device on his head.  "'Ello?"

"_Monsieur_ Poitin."

Had the headset not been on his head, he _would_ have dropped it at hearing the last voice he expected to hear coming through the earpiece.  As it was, an odd, strangled sound made his way out of his throat before he recovered himself and demanded, "What the hell do you want!?"

"Calm yourself, _monsieur_," the Frenchman admonished, a bad move on his part, as it only served to trigger Red's temper.  "Calm?  _Calm_!?  I just watched Sentinels _kill_ my entire crew!  Only an hour ago I overheard the One sell Zion out to the machines!  I had to watch one of my crew dissolve into hysterics because she heard someone she believed would save us sell out the human race!  Where the hell do you get off telling me to calm myself!?"

"It is not me you are angry with, Red.  It is ze One who has stirred your wrath.  Now, _tais-toi_ and listen if you wish to live."  It occurred to Red that not only had the Merovingian called him by his common nickname, he had also told him to shut up.  The novelty of this was indeed enough to shut him up.  "I'm listening," he growled, keeping a wary eye on the Sentinels circling him and Kevin.

"Ze reason I saved you is because you intrigue me, _monsieur._  Ze only living 'uman to 'ave robbed me and gotten away wis it should not be torn apart by Sentinels."

"Well, I certainly feel special," Red snapped.

"_Firme__ le bouche__,_ Poitin.  I am offering you what you might call a... once in a lifetime opportunity: ze chance to re-enter ze Matrix and serve me.  Ze chance to become a program."

Red's jaw slackened as he realised what the Merovingian was offering him.  His conscience stirred, woke, and promptly went to war with his strong, healthy desire to live.  Said desire was also aided by what he'd heard during the One's conversation with the Architect, who had revealed that the One was not the Saviour of mankind, but instead the catalyst that kept the human race enslaved.  The One had not been the _One_, but rather the fourth of a line of Ones.  It was a cycle the machines... no, the _Oracle_ had started after the failure of the first Matrix.

Thinking of the Oracle gave him pause for a moment as he recalled her words during his last meeting with her before Kevin's unplugging.  

"_There is a choice before you, William Brennan, a choice between uncertain life and uncertain death.  This choice will affect not only you, but everyone you come across."_

"_What choice?_" he had asked, feeling the beginnings of his usual Oracle-induced headaches.  The look she had given him had convinced him to rephrase the question as, "_Okay, fine.  How will I know which to choose?_"

"_You've already made that choice, Red."_

_"And now I have to figure out why I made it, right?"_

_"You really should stop planting listening devices on the One."_

_"Actually, that one came from Giza...."_

_"I know."_

Red's eyebrow had twitched then, but he hadn't stated the obvious question of if she had known, why had she brought it up?  The Oracle answered anyway.  "_Because you are well-known for your... spontaneity, Captain Poitin._"  His eyebrow had twitched again; like Sasha and Commander "Firewall" Black, the Oracle used his real name, his rebel name, and his nickname interchangeably.

"_Do not allow your anger to get the better of you, William.  The future depends on choice."_

The Oracle's usual fare: cryptic until after her prophecy had come to pass, when it seemed so blatantly obvious, no one could believe they hadn't gotten it before.

Like now.

Red realised what choice the Oracle had been referring to: the very one the Merovingian had put before him.  Live as one of the Merovingian's men, or face almost certain death at the "hands" of the Sentinels.  Considering Kevin, there really was no choice involved.

"Two conditions," he said after a long moment.

"_Oui__?_"

"One, you give me time to get the kid to those the One chooses to repopulate Zion.  He's too young to die."

"Of course, of course."

"And Two, not until I've seen the One again.  I owe him something."  The tone of Red's voice stated irrefutably that whatever it was Red owed the One, it was not a gift.

"Very well.  You 'ave two weeks.  My Sentinels shall provide a guard for you."  As well as make sure he kept the bargain.  Red was not stupid, no matter how much his actions spoke to the contrary.  "Understood," he said grimly before the Merovingian hung up.

Red quietly removed the headset and helped Kevin out of the alcove.  "What happened?" the boy asked, confused.  Red looked at the child, who was barely able to walk, and said, "Not much."  He looked up at the Sentinels circling closer to him and sighed.

"I just sold my soul to the devil, that's all."

~*~

_*Looks up from _The DaVinci Code_*  Oh__, it's not three weeks yet?  You're going to have to bear with me, everyone.  Finals are coming up, so I have to study my ass off, especially as I was an idiot and skipped two and a half weeks' worth of most of my classes.  Yes, I know I'm a moron.  Loki's been yelling at me about this.  Point is, I have to work hard to keep from flunking out, so just be patient and wait for the summer to come.  Or at least for my semester to end._

_Now, to clear up some confusion: _Fourth Cycle _and _Second Cycle,_ as you've probably figured out, are about the ends of those Cycles.  _Legacy _and _Nosferatu _cover the beginnings of the New Cycle (also called the Seventh Cycle), and this story will cover mostly the start of the Fifth Cycle.  The epilogue will cover the lineage of the fifth One._

_If you're just now starting my Cycles epic, I recommend that you look at Fourth Cycle first to understand where Red and Molly come from._

_~*~_

_Disclaimer: The Matrix and all characters taken from the movies, game, or comics are © the Wachowski Brothers.  I am only borrowing them and I promise to put them away when I'm done. Red, Molly, and most other original characters are © myself and my brother, Yami Loki, with whom I discuss all my stories.  The personality of the fourth One is © Soldier Zero and is borrowed with permission._


End file.
